Pierre Gasly’s rollercoaster weekend at the Azerbaijan GP took a dramatic turn as he was disqualified from qualifying for breaching the FIA’s fuel flow regulations. After a difficult series of practice sessions, where the Frenchman struggled to find pace in his Alpine, his qualifying performance showed promise. Gasly ran as high as fourth in Q1 before securing 13th on the grid for Sunday’s race, only to face the stewards post-session.
The FIA confirmed that Gasly’s car exceeded the permitted fuel mass flow rate during his final lap in Q2, a violation of Article 5.2.3 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations. Despite Alpine’s defense, citing an unexpected technical fault that caused a short-duration spike in fuel flow, the stewards upheld the disqualification.
“The Technical Delegate reported that Car 10 [Gasly] exceeded the permitted 100kg/h fuel mass flow on the final timed lap of Q2,” the stewards noted. Alpine acknowledged the issue but argued that no performance advantage was gained as the technical fault resulted in a slower lap time. Despite this, the breach of regulations led to Gasly’s disqualification.
The disqualification mirrors recent incidents this season, including Alex Albon’s exclusion from Zandvoort qualifying due to an illegal floor on his Williams, and Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen being disqualified in Monaco for DRS infringements.
Gasly, while disappointed, remained positive about his performance. “It is obviously a pity that a minor fuel flow infringement means we are disqualified from the session,” Gasly said. “In any case, we expected to find it tough to reach Q2 as the car has been tricky all weekend, which has shown on the timesheets throughout Practice. I was very pleased with my laps in Qualifying and, even if the result doesn’t look spectacular, it was one of our most complete sessions of the season.”
Alpine will now have to regroup as they face an uphill battle for Sunday’s race, starting Gasly from the back of the grid.
